Xbox 360 failure rate is over 50 percent!

A consumer survey by Game Informer magazine has revealed some astounding facts, the prime among them being that one out of every two Xbox 360 units sold is malfunctional; yet, owners will be undeterred by the hardware failure and still buy the console in the future!

Game Informer conducted a survey of over 5,000 readers, asking them questions about all three next-gen video game consoles.

The Xbox 360 has been notorious for a string of technical failures, the most widely renowned being the dreaded ‘Red Ring Of Death’. This author himself has faced that problem and knows quite a few others who have encountered Microsoft’s new version of the BSOD.

The survey found that the Xbox 360 has a 54.2 per cent failure rate, compared to 10.6 per cent for the PS3 and the Wii's 6.8 per cent.

“Microsoft also seized the gold medal for unhelpful customer service, taking nearly a month to repair or replace a console, while Nintendo and Sony stuck closer to a week. Only 37.7 percent of Microsoft customers found the company's customer service was "very helpful," compared to 51.1 percent of Sony and 56.1 percent for Nintendo,” reported The Consumerist.

The only positive aspect for the Redmond giant was that of the three consoles, the Xbox 360 is definitely used the most. “About 40.3 per cent of 360 owners play it 3 to 5 hours a day, with 37 per cent of PS3 owners doing the same. And unsurprisingly, a full 40.4 per cent of Wii owners turn that console on less than an hour a day,” Gizmodo wrote.

The most shocking number from the survey – and frightening from a consumer perspective – is only 3.8 percent of Xbox 360 owners said they'd never buy another Xbox because of hardware failure. And we thought we were the only masochists around.

Source:thinkdigit

Xbox Live Update releases, available in India

The much-hyped Xbox Live update that Microsoft presented at the E3 Expo in June is now available for download across the world. Users need just to connect to Xbox Live to receive a message asking them to update to the new version.

Here are the major features in the Xbox Live update and our feelings about the same:

1) Games on Demand: The new Xbox Live update lets you download full games through a digital e-store on to your hard disk, using Microsoft Points (which we fondly refer to as “Allard Bucks”) or a credit card. The pricing, though, is horrid. There is absolutely no benefit over packaged game pricing, so the notion to download and store a game on a small hard disk does not seem enticing.

2) Avatar Marketplace: Microsoft has introduced the ability to customise your avatar to the hilt with a new marketplace where you can buy clothes and accessories. But with prices ranging up to 400 Allard Bucks, it is a total rip-off. We wanted to pick up a storm trooper costume but the greedy bastards at Lucas sell the armour and the helmet separately. And then you buy the light-saber! So that's a lot of Allard Bucks for looking like everyone else. Ubisoft, though, is selling its Splinter Cell: Conviction stuff for decent prices, so be sure to check that out.

3) NetFlix: The new Xbox Live update brings with it access to the popular NetFlix service for movies on demand. However, we do not think this is available in India yet. We could not access it through the console, probably because of an IP check. We hope that perhaps someone like BigFlix could be roped in for the Indian audience.

4) Content Rating: The most useless new feature is that you can also rate content. Here’s the idiotic part – you can rate games that you have not played, and even those that have not yet been released. Wow just Wow.

Source:Thinkdigit.com

Microsoft on New Xbox 360

Microsoft says all this talk about an upgraded Xbox 360 is not only wrong, it's missing the point. There won't be an upgraded Xbox 360 next year, and in fact, we're only halfway through the current console cycle. What's more, Project Natal, the company's no-controller 3D motion and voice recognition technology is being designed for the existing Xbox 360, not an imaginary "performance-upgraded" one.

In an official statement released to the media, a Microsoft spokesperson wrote

As the Xbox team stated at E3 two weeks ago, we are not even halfway through the current console generation lifecycle and believe Xbox 360 will be the entertainment center in the home for long into the next decade. Project Natal will be an important part of this platform, but we have not confirmed a launch date at this time.

And while games blog Kotaku makes assumptions I wouldn't about the Ballmer quote in the introductory paragraph to this article, the piece is worth scanning for the following quote, from Xbox Live Director of Product Management, Aaron Greenberg:

There will be no new console.

You can't get any less ambiguous than that, and unless you're into torturing semantics, that's book shut, case closed, speculation over.

But what about Natal? Will there be a version of the Xbox 360 with Natal integrated? Maybe, maybe not. Greenberg says they've looked into it, but that's all he's saying. What Steve Ballmer said yesterday doesn't help--it's simply too ambiguous to cite evidentially. Anyone claiming otherwise needs to rethink how this medium works.

Microsoft Plans Xbox 360 "Game of the Year" Bundle

Microsoft will launch the Xbox 360 Game of the Year bundle sometime in May, the company said by way of its "Major Nelson" blog on Monday.

It's a pretty simple deal: a Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite, bundled with Halo 3 and Fable II, all for $399. As Major Nelson points out, that's the normal price of the Elite -- meaning that the games are included for free.

Bad news for Europeans, however: the deal will be offered everywhere but there; there was no explanation given. There's also the question of how many gamers out there want both an Xbox 360 Elite but don't own either game.

"Major Nelson" is the blog name of Larry Hyrb, the Microsoft director of programming for Xbox Live.

Microsoft's Working on an Xbox Next

Sometimes it's what a company says it's not doing that grabs your head and twists it around. Case in point, Blizzard veep of game design Rob Pardo is flatly denyingrumors the company's been rapping with Microsoft about a hypothetical Xbox 360 successor (unimaginatively dubbed 'Xbox 720' by the mathematically literalist media).

It's no secret high level execs yak about this stuff behind hermetically sealed walls and chambers, probably carrying around microscopic explosives that could blow open their carotid arteries if they squeal. Occasionally something leaks anyway (or appears to) then bangs around the blogosphere with exaggerated gravitas.

With the Xbox 360 over three years old, it's as likely as not that Microsoft's already broached the subject of its Xbox 360 followup act (in one form or another) with whoever it's dubbed worthy.

New Xbox Experience Hands-On

We've seen the New Xbox Experience twice this year, at E3 2008 where Microsoft first announced the update and later at a press briefing in San Francisco. We got the opportunity to install the New Xbox Experience on a console here in the GameSpot offices three weeks before the update's official launch on November 19. We've already written about most of the new features in past previews but we can now post screenshots of everything now that Microsoft PR isn't controlling the flow of pictures.
The new dashboard interface expands out to take advantage of high-resolution displays, and menus now display more information through graphics rather than through text.
Games and movies show up with full box cover art instead of nondescript text listings.
The new menu system is a little disorienting at first when we tried to overcome years of trained menu navigation, but we got accustomed to the new menus after a few sessions. It also helped that the new Xbox Guide is a miniaturized version of the old bladed menus. Whenever we got lost, we pulled up the Guide like a trusted map.
It might take some exploration, but you'll find everything eventually.
Players can select and customize their own virtual avatars. The system randomly generates several starting models to choose from, and you can further customize your avatar from there.Character customization options include physical features such as height, weight, hairstyle, and hair color. Adjustable facial features include eyes, eyebrows, mouth, lips, facial hair, and even make-up.
The customization menu offers several clothing and accessory options and you can also save several outfits to make it easier to swap looks.
Take a gamer pic of your avatar after you finish. Use the analog sticks and left bumper to strike a pose.
We didn't have access to the fancy 2.0 Themes we've seen in past screenshots, but the default Xbox 360 theme looks pretty nice.
Microsoft also wants to make it easier for players to socialize with friends on the console. Xbox Live parties allow players to join up to 7 of their friends in a group with shared chat.Groups can participate in activities such as a Photo Party where party members can upload photos in real time for everyone to enjoy.
The update also includes the debut of the Community Games channel where Xbox Live users can download games developed by the XNA developer community. We only saw three games in the channel this week: Culture, Netters, and Net Rumble but we expect that list to grow rapidly at launch.
Our preview build allowed us to download games to the console hard disk. The transfer process took less than 10 minutes for The Orange Box. The primary benefits are decreased load times and less noise from the optical drive.The Netflix channel was also fully functional in the update. The channel allows Xbox Live Gold subscribers that also have Netflix subscriptions to stream Netflix video content directly to the Xbox 360. The available content is limited to whatever is saved in your "instant queue," so you won't be able to watch regular DVD movies or television shows unless they have a streaming instant play option in Netflix.
We found the free Netflix application in the video marketplace. During the installation process, the program generated an activation code that we entered into the Netflix Website to associate our Netflix rental account with the Xbox Live profile. The channel will display all the items you have in you instant queue on the Netflix Website. New items added to the list from the Web page show up in the Xbox 360 channel seconds later.
We were pleasantly surprised by how much content was actually available in the Netflix instant watch catalog, particularly current television shows. Older movies such as Bad Boys were only available in standard definition, but newer television shows such as Heroes and 30 Rock both streamed in HD, or as high-definition as streaming Netflix content can get. The frame rates in HD were satisfactory, but we did notice some choppiness and ghosting artifacts in scenes with fast-moving action.
Overall the New Xbox Experience looks polished and we look forward to its official November 19 launch. The Primetime channel won't be ready then, but it should appear as an update in 2009.

Xbox 360 hard drive game installation testing

We spent more time investigating the hard disk game installation feature included with the New Xbox Experience. We pulled The Orange Box, Command & Conquer 3, NBA Live 09, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed out of the GameSpot game library to measure installation times and to see how game load times improved with hard drive installations.

We found that installation time varies depending on the size of the game which isn't surprising because the installation process copies the data from the DVD to the hard drive--bigger games are going to take longer to rip. Installing the 4.7GB Orange Box disc took 6 minutes and 57 seconds while it only took 5 minutes and 35 seconds to get Command & Conquer 3's 3.6GB onto the hard drive. The Force Unleashed, weighing in at 6.6GB, extended out the installation time to 9 minutes and 47 seconds and it took 9 minutes and 7 seconds to install NBA Live 09's 6.3GB of data.

The load time benefits are fairly respectable, but you're not going to see anything close to instant game loads. Getting Orange Box from the dashboard to the game's start menu took 30 seconds when playing from disc, but only 25 seconds when launched from the hard drive. Command & Conquer 3's game launch time improved the most, dropping from 33 seconds to 17 seconds. NBA Live 09 only improved by 8 seconds, going from 45 seconds to 37 seconds. The Force Unleashed yielded a larger percentage drop, going from 33 seconds to 25 seconds.

We tried a few game-specific activities to see how the hard drive installation can help after we get through the initial game launch. The hard drive didn't seem to help much when we started playing Half-Life Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2. It took the same amount of time, 35 seconds, to load Episode 2, Chapter 1 from disc as from the hard drive, and getting into Team Fortress 2 only improved from 45 seconds to 42 seconds. Command & Conquer 3 wasn't much better. The hard drive only cut a second off the time it took to launch a new skirmish. Loading a saved skirmish was also only a second faster. The drive helped The Force Unleashed cut the time it took to load a saved game down from 25 seconds to 22 seconds, and NBA Live 09 needed the same amount of time to launch a quick play game from disk and from drive, about 27 seconds.

We can't make any definitive statements with such a small game sample size, but it looks like Microsoft's Albert Penello, director of marketing for Xbox, wasn't kidding when he told us that the main hard drive installation benefit will be reduced noise from not having the optical drive spin up. The hard drive did seem to make launching games faster, but in-game actions such as loading saved games our starting quick play sessions didn't improve much if at all. For all those kids wondering if they can play games from the hard drive without the game disc, sorry to destroy your pending Blockbuster schemes, but the console still requires the game disc to be in the system before launching the game from the hard drive.